


White Candles

by simplelovelyfanfics



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon GO
Genre: Angst, Jealousy, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald AU, Saltiness, bittersweet memories
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-09-17 08:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9314564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplelovelyfanfics/pseuds/simplelovelyfanfics
Summary: Clouds have covered the sunny skies of Hoenn. The leaders of Team Valor, Mystic, and Instinct have abandoned their posts to pursue different goals. Articuno's servant has joined Team Aqua as one of its heads. Moltres's mistress watches over Team Magma from her perch. No one will be able to stop their decade-old feud, will they?*Pokemon GO - Team Aqua/Team Magma AU created by PatchOfGrey





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PatchOfGrey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatchOfGrey/gifts).



The droning sound of computer keys clicking filled the room, reminding Spark of chattering teeth, much like his own. He knew Team Aqua would have everything aqua but this took the cake. Every electronic screen - blue. Every chair and desk - blue. Every square inch of wall and floor - blue. The shove the two guards gave him made him feel the color. He wasn't going to be able to escape, was he? He was no dashing hero, as much as he joked about it amongst his peers... Former peers. They were his former peers now.

The plush chair meant for the leader was filled and turned away from him, facing the scientists working round the clock to cause what he came here to talk to the leader about. The familiar white boots were folded as if the leader was sitting cross-legged, as if they were gazing pleasantly at the world's imminent destruction.

"Leave him there, boys. He won't cause any more trouble."

The two guards go back to whatever they were doing prior wordlessly. No thank you's, no goodbyes, not even a yes, sir. The whole place unsettled him but the lack of emotion there sent a jolt of shivers down his spine

"Hello, Spark." With a soft push, Blanche finally turned around in her chair. She looked well. The beginnings of a smile that used to make him feel calm as the ocean formed on her lips. "It's been a while."

"I-It---" He stopped himself to breathe in and out deeply. He couldn't chicken out now - especially from a smile no less. He just couldn't. "It has."

"It seems you haven't changed. Only you would think to break into the hideout - by yourself on top of that. _How courageous_."

Spark gulped. Memories of better days flashed in his mind and made going back to the situation he was currently in something of horror films.

"Oh, and your Pokémon are just so strong too. Electric beats water - that's what we were taught, no?"

It certainly was. Just the idea of Blanche mentioning any Pokémon, much less his, sent shivers crawling up and down his spine. It was disheartening. He didn’t want to feel this way around the person he cherished so long ago.

"They just adore you too. I can feel in their Pokéballs they're begging for your safe return - which I'll humor them about unless you-" Blanche narrowed her eyes and clenched her fist so tight it turned the color of the leader's namesake. "- don't explain why in the name of Palkia you're here."

Spark scoffed. "Ain't it obvious?"

"Oh, it is actually. You're still too easy to read. I just want to hear it." Blanche rose from the chair and stepped pointed steps towards Spark. She knelt down before the blonde with a coy look. Then she grabbed him by the face and shoved it right up to her, forcing him to stare right into his old friend's icy eyes. He didn't realize how icy her eyes began until he saw them up close. Articuno's Blizzard would have nothing on her eyes. "Say it. Why did you infiltrate Team Aqua's - my team's - hideout?"

"... Because you're going to make an irreversible mistake."

Blanche scoffed and threw the blonde's face out of her hand like something treasured that suddenly became filth. Or it was filth the whole time and the owner did not realize it. "Asking you to join is out of the question now."

"When will you get a clue? Do you really think summoning a sea god will make the world sunshine and rainbows? No. It won't."

Blanche crossed her arms and paced back and forth to the beat Spark's heart did. Faster and faster it pulsed. Faster and faster they walked.

"In fact, there won't be any sunshine and rainbows anymore if you do this. Millions of Pokémon and people will die if you carry this madness out."

Blanche snorted.

Spark was flabbergasted. "W-What's so funny?"

"Madness? I'm the one who has gone mad?" She threw her head back as she cackled as if the blonde had said just the funniest thing. The sound was foreign to him. After all these years, Spark had never heard the person he was before even laugh. He didn't like it. In fact, he found it creepy, like the sounds children would lie awake at night hoping not to hear. "Why should I believe you, a dog of Professor Willow?"

"... He was our mentor. You know that. Don't you r-"

Blanche snapped her head at him, her eyes wide and berserk. "Do not mention that heathen when you're at my mercy."

"That ‘heathen’ made all of us leaders. Me, Candela, and you - we were all supposed to be in this together; to better the world, not destroy it. I don't understand why you and her abandoned the people you called a family to go on some witch hunt but I can't sit by and allow it anymore."

"But you abandoned Instinct as well in the end. Right? It was in all the papers. 'Team Instinct Leader Gone For Good', followed by reports of complete dissolution. How cute. Your little friends couldn't stand to not have you as their host so they cancelled the entire party." Blanche glowered. "Do not sit here and preach the world of a false god as if you're still its prophet."

"I left them because of you!"

Blanche scoffed and shook her head. "My, my, you haven't aged a day. You're still so childish."

"I left them because you decided your mission was to kill. I left them because I love them and I couldn't risk them getting hurt or worse over your feud with Candela!"

"... Excuse me?" Team Aqua's leader's expression darkened as dark as a Houndoom's glare. The darkness and wrath of the underworld glowed in her eyes.

"I might be childish but I'm not stupid. You and her always fought over every little thing. You left Mystic after she left Valor, only a month apart too. I bet you joined Team Aqua just to piss her--"

"I took over for Archie because---"

"You're the child, Blanche! You are! I cannot allow a damn child to destroy the world just because they're jealous of---"

Blanche slapped him across the other cheek. Her façade of tranquility was gone. Pieces of hair flew out of her ponytail. Her eyes were wide and rabid. She practically spat all over Spark as she hollered, "That cow was never my friend!"

Spark gritted his teeth to hide the pain. Damn did Blanche have strength. It hurt just as bad as when his Pikachu electrocuted him for fun. But he wouldn't let that defeat him. He needed to win just once in his life against Blanche - now.

"... Get out."

"What?"

"Get out! Guards, throw him into the ocean or wherever. I don't care. I want him out of my sight before I decide to strangle him."

The two men from before reappeared from the shadows and grabbed his shoulders. Just the contact zapped him. "No, no, Blanche, don't do this. Don't shut me out again. Please, I'm begging you. Stop this. Don't summon Kyogre."

She combed her white hair back with her fingers and sighed hard. She walked back to their chair as the guards began to drag Spark away. She simply sat down in their chair turning back towards the scientists in the room. With a finger, she summoned a woman and passed her the man's Pokéballs.

"Blanche, don't do this! Please! You gotta listen to me! Blanche! Blanche!"

The doors metal and cold shut in an instant.

* * *

 

"Well, I guess the whole ‘talking it out’ thing failed."

Spark sat on the edge of the cliff, his feet dangling off of it. His Raichu, Pip, sat next to him, waving his lightning-bolt shaped tail in the air gentle as the breeze that blew by them. Pip was his masterpiece, a symbol of what hard work and resolve could do. Spark reminisced about his first meeting with his dear partner-in-crime as he scratched him under his furry chin. Spark was a natural at befriending Pokémon and when he discovered a sickly Pichu in the forests near his childhood home, it was just as easy to coax the little fellow to trust him. The Pichu who would later be named Pip by the blonde's younger sister was unexpected to survive. But Spark was born thick-skulled. The frail Pokémon who was only the size of his palms grew to be the shining Raichu he sat next to him.

Spark sighed. He felt Pip's pain from back then at the moment. He was so weak compared to the formidable person he used to call a friend. Candela didn't treat him much different than Blanche did either. Spark was a failure then. The two people he used to train and battle with would see him as that: a gullible fool.

Pip nudged his trainer with his head. Spark peered down at him. Pip was smiling big, eyes creased with hope. You're capable of anything. You just need help. That was what Pip would probably say.

Spark then pulled his friend into his lap and gave him a hug. His Raichu was right. All he needed was some help.

He could be the hero he needed to be. He really could.

He pulled out his PokéNav-Plus from his backpack and dialed the one person who could help him. The man he needed right then and there answered almost immediately. "Oh, hiya, Sparky. And, oh, Pip is looking very good too."

"Hey, Professor Willow. I..." He gulped before willing himself to say those words he had to say. "I'm ready."

The professor blinked once, twice before his friendliness was replaced with gravity. "Be in my office tomorrow morning - five am sharp. Make sure your team is well rested."

"Right." He hung up with a click. He sighed once again.

He picked up a pebble, examined it for a reason unknown to him, and chucked it down the cliff.

Time to be a hero.


	2. Chapter 2

The former mistress of Valor stood amongst the Magma with pride. Different strokes, different folks but she could keep her color and confidence in exchange for…

The members of Team Magma would lower their hoodies and speak in whispers about her reasoning for abandoning her status, her wealth, all those who loved and adored her to be an underling of their boss. It was no disrespect to the scientific genius they were allowed to call by his childhood nickname. No, they would follow Maxie through the fire and flames they repped. Candela, however; she was everything every little Trainer girl wanted to be. She had beauty, grace, a swagger and smirk that made even infants blush. She had intelligence, skill, the ability to take down the entirety of the Elite Four in minutes. She had strength, power, _valor_. Yet she threw the leader status she spent more than a decade upholding and the wealth she amassed through her struggles and good luck - all for a lowly, illegal job.

She knew they whispered about her. She wasn’t born yesterday. But she would approach them with a fire Moltres would nod at and smile as bright as a Solar Beam. She always did. That was how she got all of her prior team members. That was how she kept them for so long.

She sighed. She had to stop thinking about them. Just the recollection of their happy mugs would make her flames die.

A young male member she had seen often approached her with an envelope. “Ms. Candela---”

“Candela or Candy,” she commanded, “Skip the formalities, kid.” She surmised he would keep calling her miss regardless.

“Candela.”

She rose her eyebrows. He was one of the ones with hidden confidence. How surprising, she thought. “Good. What's up, kid?”

“... I'm twenty-seven, Candela.”

She cracked a smile like a crack forming in a wall during an earthquake. “And you don't want to know my age, kiddo. Regardless, what's up?”

“This is for you.” And he held out the envelope for her to take. “There's no return address on it.”

She plucked it out of his hands in an instant. She wouldn't have done so if she thought it was a bill or something of that sort. But she felt something was odd about it. It was as if there was something blue about it.

“Who delivered this? I know it wasn't a mailman.”

“Of course not. It was a man in a suit.”

She furrowed her brow at the thought. “No affiliations?”

“Not sure. He might've just been a mediator or something.”

That affirmation did not sway her hypothesis. “Thank you… Greg?”

“Stephen.”

“Stephen?”  
“Stephen Jones. Everyone always joked about me being a step away from Steven Stone.”

She gagged at just the name. “Don't bring that geophile up around me.”

That got him to laugh. “Right.” He nodded to himself. “Right. Have a good day, Ms. Candela.”

“Just Candela.”

“Right. Have a good day, Candela.” Before she could utter a reply, Stephen Jones turned on his heel and went through the reinforced steel doors.

He was an odd character but he seemed to be nice. That was how many members of Magma were. She would have to mellow them out before she could go out on a mission with them.

Shaking those thoughts out of her head, she set her eyes on the envelope. She unceremoniously tore it open and took out the single piece of paper inside. She unfolded the paper. What she saw made her blood curdle: that gaudy cursive in that damn blue ink. She was right. There was something awful and disgustingly blue about it.

The letter had but one sentence: Team Aqua has acquired the orbs.

She read it two more times before she couldn't resist the urge to snicker anymore. And as that little noise turned into a round of hysterical laughter, the letter fell out of her hand and soundlessly onto the floor.

The members inside the control room turned away from their screens to gawk at her. They were already unnerved about not being under Maxie’s sharp gaze. The lackadaisicalness of her cackling was new to them.

She eventually stopped. She eventually stepped on the letter as if it were its sender’s face.

“That little-! Does she really think I believe her? Who does she think I am? Just because I was second in the academics Willow taught us doesn't mean I wasn't born yesterday.”

The doors behind her opened with a metallic purr. A pair of feet stepped in.

“You look busy.”

Candela didn't turn around. “Hey, Courtney.”

“Hi. Should I leave?”

“No. I was just finishing up. Come in.”

“Good.” And Maxie’s left hand came in with a certain pep in her step she always had despite the never-changing bored expression. She stood right by Candela, waiting for her to turn around.

Candela did so with that bit of flare she always had. Courtney was always a bit jealous of that about her. Not enough to make her feel like she drank something expired every time she saw her. No, in fact, Courtney found Candela to be a good confidante and an extrovert to suit her own introverted tendencies. But whenever Candela turned like that, like a dancer meant to be in the movies, she just felt a twinge of something ugly spring to life for just a moment.

“I have some news.”

“Bad or good?”

“A little of both.”

Candela nodded. “Alright. Spit it.”

“We found the orbs.”

Candela smirked. “This is why I love working with you all.”

Courtney had the urge to twirl her hair between her fingers as she did as a child but remembered her hair was too short to do so then. “Mhm. We are moving out to capture them tomorrow afternoon.”

“No, make it five hundred hours.”

She abhorred the fact Maxie’s organization used everything in military time. He claimed he was the first to do it but Candela was positive Archie was a sailor in the Navy. That red-haired string bean had no need to use the system besides a personal middle finger to his subordinates. Regardless, Candela obeyed the system.

“That's so early. I know even you like your sleep.”

“I have a feeling a certain someone already knows about them. That certain someone rises at four hundred hours.”

Courtney gulped. “Why in the---”

“She's strict, traditional, like reading a science textbook when everyone's into fiction novels.”

“That's an odd comparison.”

“It's the only way to describe her without calling her a pill.”

“Or a weirdo.”

“She's not weird.” Candela crossed her arms. “She just calculated she would have more time in the day if she did this.”

“Calculated?”

Candela grimaced, trying to calm herself. “Blanche is about calculations. Nothing else; she treats them like they're a lover.”

“You can't screw a calculator.”

That got her to laugh. “No wonder she's never gotten laid.”

“Um, I haven't either.”

“But you don't like people in general. You have an excuse.”

“Neither does Blanche.” Courtney was tempted to slap her hands over her mouth. She nervously carried on with her statement by asking, “Or does she?”

“... Who knows. She's not like Spark. Spark is only awkward around humans. Blanche, she's a whole other beast.”

Courtney got away with that one slip but she was always daring. Maybe she could get away with what she's been always meaning to ask. “Why… Why did you leave Valor anyway?”

Candela’s heart fell into the darkness of the fateful night that caused it all. She couldn't allow herself to get stuck in there. She found a ledge, grabbed hold of it, and forced herself out of there by rolling her shoulders back, firming her expression, and turning towards the team she now called her family. “Attention!” she commanded.

Everyone in the room stood up militaristic. Candela never imagined she would have to be a leader of a place like this. In fact, she never imagined she would be the leader of anything in her life. But she found a way to do it twice thus far.

“At five-hundred hours tomorrow, we set out to capture the legendary orbs. Though we are on a mission, we will still be on Mt. Pyre. Do not touch anything but those orbs. If any of you see anyone break this rule,” Her eyes almost gleamed the fire of Moltres’ flames, “you send ‘em to me. For V---”

She clenched her teeth down so fast she thought she had shattered them. She could not believe herself. She could not stand herself.

She cleared her throat and proclaimed, “Team Magma, advance!”

Every member saluted her as if she were their general.

“You are dismissed. Preparations begin now. Go to your stations immediately.”

And everyone scrambled to their places, some leaving the room, some sitting down in the chairs in the room. The screens in the room flashed a rainbow of colors as the computer specialists went from program to program to prepare for tomorrow.

“Courtney.”

Courtney practically jumped out of her skin.

Candela looked as if she was holding back tears. “I'll tell you one day. Probably after this mission. After all, we’re hitting end game.”

The mistress of Valor pulled her hood over her head, wished the young woman good day, and headed to a place where she could scream uninterrupted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Screw it, I'm gonna continue this.

**Author's Note:**

> So my dear friend and homegirl, PatchOfGrey, created this AU where Blanche and Candela are members of Team Aqua. She even cosplayed it too. Good shit my dude. Anyway, she drew an idea about it one day and challenged my squad to come up with some shit.  
> This is the result.  
> Not sure if I'll continue this or not. Kinda busy writing my Undertale shit. But hey this was fun to write regardless.  
> Also yes Blanche is super fucking salty.


End file.
